British Army barracks used as a training ground for the Royal Engineers will be transformed this weekend into a grueling assault course designed to test the world’s toughest obstacle racers.
Sports enthusiasts and cross-country runners from across the county will converge on the Saffron Walden site at Carver Barracks, home to 33 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), which have been specially adapted to host a ‘Cambridge Sprint’ Spartan Race.
The 5 km (3 mile) obstacle race will test racers to the limit, forcing them to grapple with fearsome, military-style obstacles including barbed-wire mud crawls, ice-pit plunges, leaps through fire, spear throwing and 25ft cargo-net climbs.
Organisers have also dug 100-foot-long dark tunnels designed to ‘conquer claustrophobia’ and racers will also be forced to wade through 5-foot bramble bushes, waist-high mud and over ‘savage terrain’. Some 5,000 runners are expected to take part.
Named after the fearless Ancient Greek warriors, Spartan Race is the world’s leading obstacle race series. It challenges entrants to “discover their inner warrior”, and has plotted a major British invasion, unveiling its biggest-ever UK events programme.
The 2013 race season features seven races UK-wide, and huge crowds are expected this Sunday to watch competitors of all age groups, as they grapple with obstacles that test their physical stamina and mental toughness.
Precise details of the obstacles are kept top secret on purpose before race day to surprise racers, but they may also tackle the fearsome “Hercules Hoist”, where racers have to yank a 40 kilo weight 25 feet in the air using a pulley. Also planned are 15-foot rope climbs and spear target-throwing.
Time penalties are common, punishable by a compulsory set of 30 burpees, press-ups with star-jumps, meted out irrespective of gender. Before the finish, a phalanx of muscle-bound Spartan warriors armed with pugil sticks, try to sweep your feet away.
The Director of Spartan Race UK, Richard Lee, a former Royal Marine Commando, hand-picked the Carver Barracks venue.
Richard Lee said today: “Army volunteers have helped us prepare this course, which will be very challenging. We have dug 100-foot tunnels, which are designed to get the claustrophobia out of your system.
“There will be lots of mud and then there are the five-foot-high thorny bramble bushes that people will have to wade through. It will be a lot of fun.”
Lee, 31, who is now Spartan’s chief course designer, spent years undergoing gruelling exercises at the Commando Training Centre for the Royal Marines at Lympstone, between Exeter and Exmouth in Devon.
As a 2nd Lieutenant, he completed assault courses himself on a daily basis – so his experience and expertise make him perfectly qualified to design Spartan Race courses that now put others through their paces.
Many competitors who know the softly-spoken, 6 ft 2 in Englishman dub him “poacher-turned-gamekeeper”. And like both, Richard Lee has carefully studied the lie of the land and hand-picked his course terrain to have a maximum impact on his racers.
Obstacle racing, led by industry frontrunners Spartan Race, is currently booming worldwide as a global craze for the new sport attracts millions of runners and keep-fit enthusiasts, including half marathoners and marathoners seeking a fresh challenge.
Spartan Race plan 78 events worldwide this year, across the Americas, Europe and Australia, an increase of nearly half on the number staged last year. In 2013, Spartan races are also planned in India, Slovakia, Mexico, Canada, the Czech Republic and, soon, China.
At Spartan Race’s first event in Britain in 2010, held at the British Army training facility at Bassingbourn Barracks, Cambs, just 1,000 trailblazers took part. Last year, 25,000 UK racers became heroic Spartan warriors. In 2013, seven races will draw an estimated record 40,000 UK entrants.
Lee adds: “Spartan races are physical and tough. Our mission is to get people off their couches and back into the outdoors. If the race inspires people to just get out of their comfort zone for a day, or if it inspires lasting change, then we’ve done our job.”